Mind Control
by Darkelvoriplorellion Tyler
Summary: The First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan, along with Lilith, arrive in the TARDIS on board a spaceship. Their initial concern is for the ship's human crew, who are suffering from telepathic interference from the Sensorites, but eventually it's the travelers who are in danger. Fourteenth in the Lilith!Verse.
1. Prologue

The TARDIS had materialized as normal, but the Doctor was still frowning at the console.

"Perhaps we've landed on top of something," Ian said.

"Yes."

"Or inside something," suggested Barbara.

The Doctor tapped one of the blinking lights on the console. "This says everything has stopped but the ship."

"What did you mean, Barbara, inside something?" Susan asked.

"Perhaps that's why we still appear to be moving. Try the scanner, Doctor."

He pressed a few buttons and they looked at the monitor. Nothing. "Covered with static. Let's try it again, Susan."

The lights in the TARDIS flickered. When the flickering stopped, a girl with ginger hair had appeared, looking at the console worriedly

"What's with the shaky welcome, huh Girl?" She frowned. "You're acting like I've never been here before."

"Who are you?" the Doctor demanded.

The girl cocked her head to the side, then nodded with understanding. "Ah, that would explain it. You must be the first. I'm Lilithanadir Lungbarrow, but I go by Lilith Taylor."

"Lungbarrow?" Susan repeated. "That's our surname."

Lilith smiled. "You must be Susan. Dad, ah, Father said you'd probably be here when I came."

The Doctor narrowed his eyes at her. "Your father sent you? Who is he?"

"You," Lilith replied. "Well, a future incarnation of you, but you nonetheless."

The two humans and the youngest Gallifreyan gaped at the girl. "Absurd," the Doctor dismissed. "I would never do something so foolish as to send a child back in my personal timeline, let alone my own daughter."

"Child?" Lilith spluttered. "You're not even three hundred yet. I'll have you know that, at this point in your timeline, I'm half your age. Besides, do you think I'm here just for the fun of it? I've got a paradox to prevent."

"If you're Grandfather's daughter, does that make you my aunt?" Susan asked, curiously.

"Don't be ridiculous, Susan. She's not my daughter."

Lilith frowned. "I never thought about it like that. I suppose you are." She shrugged. "Point is, I'm here for a bit. No point in arguing or delaying the fun, right? Why's the scanner all static?"

Ian shook himself out of the shock caused by Lilith sudden appearance. "That could be caused by an unsuppressed motor."

"Yes," the Doctor agreed, "or a magnetic field."

"Shall we go outside, Grandfather?" Susan asked, excitedly.

"No, I shan't be happy until I've solved this little mystery," he said.

Lilith rolled her eyes. "What're you gonna do? Tinker until the Old Girl shocks you? Hit the scanner with a mallet?"

"A mallet?" the Doctor repeated, appalled.

She shrugged. "Sometimes I worry about your mental health in your old age, Father."

"I don't know why we ever bother to leave the ship," Barbara sighed.

The Doctor waved it off. "You're still thinking about the experiences you had with the Aztecs."

Barbara shook her head. "No, I've got over that now."

"There's one thing about it, Doctor," Ian said, "We're certainly different from when we started out with you."

"Traveling with the Doctor changes a person," Lilith said, quietly.

"And you know this from experience?" Barbara questioned.

"Of course I do," Lilith defended. "I'm just saying, when you're in the TARDIS, you have all of time and space at your fingertips. It's impossible to walk away from that the same as you were going in. Not when you see so many things out there."

"Yes," Ian agreed. "We've had some pretty rough times and even that doesn't stop us. It's a wonderful thing, this ship of yours, Doctor. Taken us back to prehistoric times, the Daleks."

"Marco Polo, Marinus," Susan supplied.

"Ancient Rome, Midnight," Lilith whispered to herself.

"And the Aztecs," added Barbara.

The Doctor chuckled. "Yes, and that extraordinary quarrel I had with that English king, Henry the Eighth. You know, he threw a parson's nose at me."

"What did you do?"

Lilith snickered. "What else? He threw it back at him. The king demanded he be taken to the Tower of London. That's why he did it.

"Why?"

"The TARDIS was inside the Tower," Susan answered.

The Doctor frowned at Lilith. "How do you know about that? That was before Ian and Barbara came to travel with Susan and I."

"I know because you _told_ me." She rolled her eyes. "You're adventures are the bedtime stories from my childhood."

Susan cocked her head to the side. "Did you not go to the Academy?"

Lilith made a face. "On Gallifrey? Rassilon, no. I was raised on the TARDIS. Mother and Father taught me everything I need to know."

The Doctor looked at her, suspiciously. "Yes, now, let us get back to this little problem. Open the door, Susan."

"Have you checked everything, Doctor?" Ian questioned.

"Yes, yes," he assured the man.

Lilith looked shocked. "You actually check?"

"Of course I do. Simply waltzing out of the TARDIS without knowing the surroundings is irresponsible," the Doctor sniffed. "There's plenty of fresh air out there, temperature normal."

"Oh, just the unknown, then."

Lilith grinned. "And that, Barbara Wright, is half the fun."


	2. Part 1

The Doctor, Lilith, Ian, Barbara, and Susan exited the TARDIS to find a room with people in uniform sitting in chairs, very still

"You were right, Barbara," Ian said. "We have landed in something."

"It's a spaceship," the Doctor decided. "Close the door, Susan. Let us be careful. There's been some kind of catastrophe here."

Susan used the key around her neck to lock the TARDIS. Ian went over to take the pulse of one man. "Dead."

"This one's a girl," Susan said, referring to the other body.

Barbara checked her pulse. "I'm afraid she's the same. What could have happened? I can't see a wound or anything."

"I'm tempted to say 'basilisk', but I know no one's going to get the reference," Lilith said.

"Ooh, Harry Potter!" Susan exclaimed, happily. "I've only just finished reading _Chamber of Secrets_."

"Could the cause of death be suffocation, Doctor?" Ian asked.

"I never make uninformed guesses, my friend," the Doctor said, making Lilith scoff. "But certainly that's one answer. Oh, dear, dear, dear, what a tragedy you know. She's only a few years older than Susan."

"Psychically," Lilith amended.

"Grandfather, let's go back to the TARDIS," suggested Susan.

"Why?"

"I don't know." She shifted uncomfortably. "I've got a feeling about this."

Lilith raised her hand. "I second that."

"Yes, I can sense something, too," Barbara said.

"Chesterton, have you noticed anything about this watch?" The Doctor showed him the girl's watch, and then the man's. "Neither of them are working. These are the non-winding type. A movement of the wrist recharges the spring inside for twenty four hours."

"Yes, and they both stopped at about three o'clock," Ian noted.

"Yes, then suppose we say that they've only just stopped. Now that would mean that the last movement of their wrists would be at least twenty four hours ago."

Susan touched the man's arm. "Grandfather, he's still warm."

Lilith frowned. "But that would mean they died recently."

The Doctor shook his head. "It doesn't make sense, does it? But the facts are all here. I think it would be wise if we returned to the ship and left these people. There's nothing we can do for them. "Come along, Susan."

Lilith felt a pang of homesickness.

 _Come along, Pond_.

Suddenly, the man groaned and slumped forward over his desk. Lilith had to stop herself from swearing in Gallifreyan. "Ah, crap. It's the gas mask zombies again."

"His heart had stopped beating, Doctor. He was dead!"

The man mumbled something unintelligible.

"What do you want?" Ian asked. "Yes?"

"Over there, behind you, on the left," the man moaned.

Ian held up a metal box. "What, this?"

"Yes, that." The man nodded Ian gave it to him, and Lilith could hear his heart beat get stronger. "Carol. Place this against Carol's chest."

"I'm sorry, Carol's dead," Barbara said.

"Please, do as I ask."

Barbara placed the box on Carol's chest and her heart started again.

Ian gaped at them. "You were both dead."

"Grandfather, what was in that box?" Susan asked.

"Please tell me it's not nanogenes," muttered Lilith.

"It's a heart resuscitator," the man explained. "When you found us, we were in a very long sleep, but we weren't dead. My name is Maitland. This is Carol Richmond, my co-astronaut."

"Tell me, are you from the Earth?" the Doctor questioned.

"Yes."

"So are we," Barbara said, excitedly. "How's it looking?"

Carol looked confused. "The Earth, do you mean?"

"Yes."

The female astronaut sighed. "Still too much air traffic."

"They got it off the roads, did they?" Ian joked.

Maitland nodded. "You might say that, yes."

"Barbara and I, we come from London. Tell me; is Big Ben still on time?"

"What century do you come from? The twenty first, perhaps?"

"No," Barbra answered, "the twentieth."

"What's Big Ben?" Carol asked.

Barbara and Ian looked at each other. "Well, it's a clock. Near Westminster Abbey."

"Yes, you see, the whole lower half of England is called Central City now. There hasn't been a London for," Maitland did the calculation in his head, "four hundred years. We come from the twenty eighth century."

"Captain Maitland, these people must leave immediately," Carol insisted.

"Yes," he agreed, "you will have to."

"But there are so many things we want to know," Ian protested.

"There's only danger here for you. You must go."

Lilith perked up. "Danger? What kind of danger?"

"It's better that you don't know what happened to us."

"But we could help you."

"No. No, Lilithanadir," the Doctor said. "I learned not to meddle in other people's affairs years ago."

"This from the man who dueled a Sycorax for ownership of Earth," Lilith grumbled. Ian laughed.

"Now, now, now, don't be absurd. There's not an ounce of curiosity in me, my dear boy." The Doctor turned to Maitland. "Tell me, why are you in danger?"

"Very well," Maitland conceded, "I'll try to explain. Out there is a planet we call the Sense Sphere."

 _I've been to this solar system before. Years ago. Ages. Close to the planet Sense Sphere._

 _With Susan?_

 _And Ian and Barbara. I think someone else was there too._

Well, that explains it.

"The creatures on it, the Sensorites, have always prevented us from leaving this area of space."

"You mean they have some kind of power over your craft," the Doctor clarified.

"Exactly. But it's not that simple. They not only control our craft, they have some influence over us as well."

Lilith frowned. "Like hypnosis?"

"No, I do not mean hypnosis."

"Well, what then?"

Maitland struggled for words. "Somehow they have some control over our brains. They are hostile, these Sensorites, but in the strangest possible way. They won't let us leave this area of space yet they don't attempt to kill us."

"What had happened when we found you?" Susan questioned.

"The same thing that's happened many times before," Carol answered. "The Sensorites have put us into a deep sleep that gives the appearance of death, and yet they've never made any actual effort to destroy us."

"Far from it," Maitland agreed. "We both have very hazy recollections of them returning from time to time to our ship to actually feed us."

Ian shook his head. "Doesn't add up at all."

"This is why you must leave us at once," Carol repeated.

"Yes. The Sensorites may try to prevent you from leaving," added Maitland.

Barbara sniffed. "I can smell something burning."

"So can I," Susan said.

"Ian, there is something burning."

"Yes, I think you're right." Ian looked around. "Maitland, you wouldn't have anything shorting, would you?"

"No, that's not possible."

Lilith froze. ' _Help me, Dear One. It burns,_ ' she heard.

Susan put her hand on Lilith's arm. "Are you alright, Lilithanadir?"

"It's the TARDIS," she breathed.

The Doctor frowned at her. "What?"

"There's something wrong with the TARDIS."

"How could you possibly know what?"

"No time to explain!" Lilith rushed over to where the ship was parked. "Oh no."

Susan appeared at her side. "Grandfather!"

"Good gracious!" he exclaimed. "They've taken the lock!"

"It's not so much the lock; it's the opening mechanism. The door's permanently locked!"

"Permanently?" Ian repeated. "But there must be some way of getting in? What can we do, Doctor? Break down the door?"

Lilith snorted. "I seem to recall someone saying that the assembled hoards of Genghis Kahn couldn't get through that door. Maybe…" She snapped.

Nothing happened.

"What was that supposed to do?"

"In the future, the TARDIS will open her door when someone in our family snaps," Lilith explained.

Susan frowned. "Well, that doesn't seem sensible. Whose idea was it to open a TARDIS by clicking their fingers?"

Lilith furrowed her eyebrows. "You know, that's a good question. I want to say Aunt River, but don't quote me on that."

"Then we've been most effectively shut out," the Doctor concluded.

"The Sensorites?" guessed Barbara.

"Who else?"

"What do they want with us?" Susan wondered.

"I don't know. And why have they kept those other two in captivity, hmm?"

The ship started to shake. "The Sensorites!" Carol cried. "Get back! Get away!"

"What is happening, my friend?" the Doctor asked Maitland. "Can't you control the ship?"

"I'm powerless. The Sensorites are stronger than I am."

"Which is your parallel thrust?"

Maitland pointed. "There."

"Right. Velocity, Chesterton, check velocity."

Ian ran over to do as he was told. "It's not even on the unit marker, Doctor."

"Don't try and control the spacecraft. It's suicide, I tell you," insisted the astronaut.

"Oh, shut it, would you?" Lilith snapped.

"The velocity needle's hitting the red, Doctor," Ian informed him.

Lilith studied to controls and adjusted the stabilizers. The ship stopped shaking. "Thank Rassilon," she breathed.

"Oh, at last. At last," the Doctor sighed. "The ship was rolling about on its axis."

Susan looked out the window. "Grandfather, look! We're heading straight for it."

"It's the Sense Sphere!"

"Where's your deflection rays?" the Doctor demanded. "Maitland! Deflection rays."

Lilith could tell Susan was panicking. She took the young Gallifreyan's hand and sent her a sense of calming.

Susan looked over at her, shocked, but smiled. ' _Thank you._ '

Lilith smiled back. ' _Anytime._ '

"Barbara, see that panel?" the Doctor was saying. "Check status. Three lights normal."

"Yes. Three lights on," Barbara confirmed.

"Boost engines. Forward thrust and lock!" The planet filled the view screen, and then the ship veered off to the left.

"Why couldn't I do it?" Maitland moaned.

Lilith blew a strand of hair out of her face. "Let's not do that again, kay?"

* * *

Later, someone had found food and the humans and Gallifreyans were gathered around. "Well, my friend, are you feeling better?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes," Maitland said. "My head's much clearer."

"Yes, well, I rather fancy that's settled that little bit of solution. You know, I think these Sensorites have found a way to take control of your minds."

"Do you think they were deliberately trying to kill us, Doctor?" Ian questioned.

"No, no," he answered. "I don't. I think it was an exercise in fear and power."

"Yes, but for some reason or other your minds aren't open to them," Carol said.

"Yes," the Doctor agreed, "and you found a way to resist them, whereas Maitland here, his power to resist was taken from him."

Maitland put his head in his hands. "I was afraid."

Ian comforted him. "You weren't afraid. They just made you hopeless."

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, they're dangerous and cunning, these people. But that's not all. Things are very strange here. You know, they can control, they can frighten and yet they don't attempt to kill you. Furthermore, they feed you and keep you alive. All this is most extraordinary."

"Yes. Talking about food, I shall be glad when we eat. How's it coming along?" Ian asked Barbara and Susan.

"All right. Be ready in a minute," Barbara told him.

"Iron rations a la carte," joked Susan.

"Well, from the size of our stocks, they've obviously been giving us their own food," Carol commented.

"What about water, Carol?"

"Down there on the right."

"Right, we'll find it." Barbara took Susan's hand and they went off to find the water.

"Tell me, have either of you ever met any of these creatures or seen them?" the Doctor asked.

"John has," replied Carol.

"John's the other member of your crew?" Lilith guessed.

Maitland confirmed, "Yes, our mineralogist."

"Can we talk to him?"

"I'm afraid that's out of the question."

"Oh?" the Doctor questioned. "Why not?"

Maitland hesitated. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"John may be able to give us some valuable information," Ian protested.

"I told you," Carol said, firmly. "You can't see him."

"You're both being rather secretive," the Doctor noted.

Lilith looked around. "Where did Susan and Barbara go?"

Maitland rushed over to a door and tried to open it by waving his hand in front of a sensor. "We should have warned them!"

"What is it? What's wrong?" Ian demanded.

"The door's been locked on the other side. Quickly. They're in danger. We must get in from the other end." Carol brought them to another door and opened it with the sensor. "This way. This is the other way through."

Maitland tried to open the next door. "Oh, it's no use. The ray's been jammed on the other side. I'm sorry, Ian. There's nothing we can do."

"But what is it? What's wrong? What's going on inside there?"

"It's no use, no use."

Ian shoved Maitland aside and banged on the door. "Barbara! Susan!" he shouted. Carol pulled him back and he turned to glare at her. "Are there Sensorites in there?"

While the two astronauts argued, Lilith had her own internal debate to focus on. It would be easy just to use her blaster as a squarness gun and make a hole in the door, but she couldn't risk the Doctor's disapproval so early in his timeline, and revealing the fact that she had a weapon on her could cause just that.

"Maitland, you must get that door opened," Ian insisted.

"I'll have to cut round the lock," Maitland relented.

"Well, get on with it, then." Lilith snapped.

"Carol, tell me. What is it that you're both afraid of?" asked Ian.

"John's in there with your friends," Carol said. "He and I were going to get married when we got back to the Earth. The Sensorites attacked him far more than Captain Maitland and me. I had to sit there helplessly and watch him get worse and worse."

"You mean they've taken over his mind."

"Yes. He'll be frightened of strangers. He may become violent."

Lilith groaned. "Oh, perfect; just what we need."

Maitland came back and started cutting into the door with a primitive sonic tool.

"Where's the power come from?" Ian wondered.

"It's a sonic device," the astronaut explained. "We should be to the locks very soon."

"You say you haven't seen John for months?"

"He was dangerous once the Sensorites got at his brain," Carol defended.

"Can't you go faster?" the Doctor snapped. "Susan's in there."

Lilith touched his hand. "We'll get to her, Father. Don't worry." The Doctor glared at her and she pulled back. "You're a bit difficult young."

"I am far from young, child."

"And I'm no child."

Maitland stopped.

"Now what is it?" the Doctor demanded. "Get on with the job, please."

"Listen, don't you hear it? I thought there was something else."

Lilith did hear a noise now that the whirring of the sonic tool had stopped. "You mean that high-pitched whine? What is it?

"Sensorites," gasped Maitland.

"They must be near," Carol panicked. "That noise is caused by the machines that carry them through space."

"Carol, get back to your instruments," Maitland instructed. "Doctor, would you take the controller seat?"

The Doctor nodded. "Anything but this awful waiting."

"What about Barbara and Susan?" Ian questioned.

"There's no time now. Look for glowing lights on the move about the ship."

Lilith let her hand drift to her blaster. "How do they attack?"

"They won't," Maitland said. "Not in the normal way."

"Then how are we supposed to defend ourselves?"

"You'll find out soon enough. Look out there." On the view screen, two crafts appeared. "There they are! See them moving?"

"Yes, but they look miles away," said Ian.

"It won't take them long to get here."

"How long do you think it'll take them?"

The Doctor thought about it. "I don't know. They must have made the journey before. They were here before, remember? They took away the lock mechanism from my ship."

"Probably took it back to the Sense Sphere," Lilith mused.

"Yes, and now they're coming back, with what orders? To take over our minds? Hmm? Or to kill us?"

"Let's hope it's neither."

"Would it be a good idea to move?" Ian asked.

Maitland shook his head. "Where to? We already know we can't leave this area of space. Anyway, we're not going to be destroyed. Had the Sensorites intended that, they would have done so long ago."

"If that collision course was their idea of a joke, I'd hate to be one of their enemies."

"You can say that again," muttered Lilith.

"They wouldn't really try to crash us. They just keep on playing this game of nerves," Carol said bitterly. "Interference now on all our scans."

"Now remember, all of you, no violence unless the Sensorites start it first." Maitland reminded them.

Ian protested. "Why no violence? Surely we've got the right to protect ourselves?

"My dear Chesterton," the Doctor said. "It's our minds that they take over, so we must presume that the brain is all important. Now let our own intelligence be our own defense, and attack."

The whining stopped. "I can sense them all around us now." Carol's voice was shaky. Maitland shushed her.

Lilith looked around the ship, her eyes landing on one of the windows. "Father," she whispered. A bulbous-headed humanoid was gazing at them from the outside of the ship. "That can't be good."


	3. Part 2

_The whining stopped. "I can sense them all around us now." Carol's voice was shaky. Maitland shushed her._

 _Lilith looked around the ship, her eyes landing on one of the windows. "Father," she whispered._ _A bulbous-headed humanoid was gazing at them from the outside of the ship. "That can't be good."_

* * *

The Sensorite was bald, had a salmon-colored skin, and two completely black eyes. Its ears were long and pointed and its mouth was similar to the Ood, but with whiskers instead of tentacles.

"Doctor? Doctor!" Ian hissed.

"Calm down, Ian," Lilith said. "The calmer you are, the stronger your defenses against them."

"But the Doctor."

The Doctor, Maitland, and Carol seemed to be transfixed by the Sensorite, as if it had some kind of mesmeric influence over then. Lilith put her hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "Father?"

"Mm?" The Doctor was torn from his reverie and got up to examine the Maitland and Carol. "Maitland? Maitland! Can you hear me?" It appeared to have no effect. "Fear, my boy. It's loosened his mind. It gives the Sensorites the chance to control it."

"Doctor, that thing's still out there," Ian reminded him.

"Oh, ignore it. Maitland!" The Doctor gave Maitland a gentle shake.

The man blinked a few times, becoming a little more lucid. "Yes… I hear you."

"I really hope he's talking to us," Lilith muttered.

Ian frowned. "Whom else would he be talking to?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe Whiskers out there?"

The Doctor glared at them, and then turned back to Maitland. "There's work to be done, my boy! Work, understand?"

"Work…" Maitland responded.

"There's a door to be opened, remember?"

"A… door, er, yes."

"Danger on the other side."

"John, yes…" Maitland shook himself. "We must get the two girls out!" He ran to the stuck door and tried to shift it, but it remained immobile. "I'll have to use the cutter."

"Oh, not again!" Ian complained. "How long will this take?"

"It's the only way," Maitland insisted, returning to using the sonic tool to cut through the metal to the lock mechanism.

Ian sighed. "Yes, I know. Just that I'm so worried about Barbara and Susan."

The Doctor chuckled. "Now, now, try and contain your emotions. Use self-control. Otherwise it confuses the brain and leaves it wide open to an attack by the Sensorites. Look at Maitland here. Fear and inertia has left him vulnerable."

Carol came over. "The Sensorites are in the ship now."

"What? How did they get in?" Lilith demanded.

"Through the loading bay."

"But that can't be where Barbara and Susan are now," the Doctor said.

Carol shook her head. "No, but we must get to them as soon as possible."

"Oh, nobody's arguing about that!" Ian snipped.

"The Sensorites have control over that man John's mind," Lilith remembered. "Could they use the control to force him to obey orders?"

Ian went back to Maitland. "How's it coming?"

"Slowly," he said, "but it's working."

"If only I knew what was happening on the other side of this door!" Ian banged on the metal door and shouted. "Barbara! Susan!"

"Ian, calm down!" Lilith chided. The man proceeded to pace back and forth like a caged tiger. The others waited, just as patiently, for Maitland's painfully slow work to be completed. Lilith had been reduced to rocking onto her heels.

When he finished the lock, Maitland attempted to open the door. It slid up, but got stuck after leaving just a six-inch gap. "Oh, it's jammed. We'll have to cut the whole section out!"

"For the love of Rassilon!" Lilith groaned and pulled out her blaster. "Out of my way."

"What is that, Lilithanadir?" the Doctor questioned, sternly.

She sighed. "It's a squareness gun, Father. Watch." She flicked the setting switch and disintegrated a large, square hole in the door. On the other side, a man in uniform was crumpled on the ground, clutching his head. The two women knelt next to him, trying to comfort the man.

"Barbara! Susan!" Ian exclaimed.

After quick reunion hugs and greetings, Lilith, Ian, and Maitland brought John into a different room and laid him on a cot. Lilith returned to find the Doctor having a conversation with Carol.

"So we really can resist them?" Carol was asking.

"Yes, and there's that friend of your, John. We must look after him, they have a hold on his mind, you know."

"Oh, he's sleeping peacefully now."

"Ah, yes. I wonder; did Susan relieve the pressure?" The Doctor turned to his granddaughter, who was sitting in the corner.

"I-I heard hundreds of voices in my mind, Grandfather," she admitted.

He fixed her with a stern expression. "Oh yes, and that was a _dangerous_ thing to do, Susan! Because you were strong-willed and without fear, they didn't harm you."

Susan avoided his gaze as Maitland came back. "He's resting now," he reported. "Did you know his hair was almost white?"

"There's nothing wrong with that," the Doctor sniffed.

"In a man of thirty, Doctor?" Maitland countered. "And he looked so old! Why have the Sensorites done this? What do they want from us?"

Ian appeared in the doorway. "Doctor?"

"Mm?"

"John muttered something before he passed out. 'The dreams of avarice.' Now, on Earth we have a saying, 'Rich beyond the dreams of avarice.' I think he's discovered something."

"That would explained why he got the worst of it from the Sensorites," Lilith mused.

"Yes, what were John's duties?" the Doctor asked the two astronauts.

"Well, he's out mineralogist," Maitland answered.

"Makes sense," Lilith said. "If John is mumbling something about riches, he may have discovered something that the Sensorites wanted so keep secret. So they silenced him and kept the ship prisoner near their planet."

"I see." The Doctor nodded. "And now they're trying to do the same thing to us. We must get the lock of the TARDIS back." He turned to Maitland. "Have you tried talking to them?"

"Talking to them?"

"Yes, we must try. We _must_!"

* * *

Maitland handed the Doctor a large cylindrical device. "One spectroscope, Doctor."

"I do remember that he was beginning to take a reading of the minerals in the vicinity," Carol said.

"And then what happened?" Barbara asked.

"Well, that was the first time that the Sensorites attacked us."

The Doctor handed Ian a strip of card with a series of colored lines on it. "Would you like to look at that graph for a moment?"

Lilith looked at the graph over Ian's shoulder. "There's nothing much there. It's just an ordinary collection of elements. Oxygen, hydrogen, sodium…"

Susan glanced at the strip of car. "Oh, what's that?"

"It's a spectrograph, Susan," Ian explained. "You see those lines, they represent the emission wavelengths that—"

"Oh yes, of course," Susan cut him off.

"No, there certainly isn't anything special indicated on this."

"You're very strange people," Carol commented.

Susan looked at her, surprised. "Are we?"

"Well you come from nowhere and you seem to be going nowhere."

"Oh, we're very dependent on the Doctor," Barbara said. "He leads and we follow."

Carol frowned. "Travel without a purpose?"

"Oh no, there's a purpose in it," she assured her. "He's trying to get us back to our own time on Earth."

"Isn't it better to travel hopefully than arrive?" Susan added.

"Oh, anything's better than circling around a planet forever and being kept alive," Carol sighed. "Alive. It's been more like a living-death."

The Doctor looked away from the spectroscope. "I don't understand, there must be a clue here somewhere. There must be."

"Well, I don't know, Doctor," shrugged Ian. "There certainly isn't much here."

"I studied it whenever I could, but it didn't look like anything that would cause much excitement," said Maitland. "The Sense Sphere is just an ordinary planet with a slightly bigger land mass than usual, but, er, that's all."

"Yes, that's very interesting. May I?" the Doctor inquired.

"Certainly." Maitland handed his findings to the Doctor.

"Excuse me." He sat in a corner and studied the pattern.

"Right," Lilith said. "Information pooling. What do we know?"

"We know that the Sensorites have discovered thought transference," Susan offered.

Barbara nodded. "And when John discovered something, he became so excited that his mid opened up and he broadcast it to the Sensorites. And it was something they wanted kept a secret."

"I know what he found!" the Doctor exclaimed, suddenly. He showed the graph to Ian. "Molybdenum! It's all here in the graph, but it's all mixed up with the lines so it doesn't make obvious reading."

"Molybdenum?" Ian repeated.

"It's an alloy in steel that resists really high temperatures," Lilith explained. "Things like this spaceship would be utterly useless without it."

"Now let me see." The Doctor thought for a moment. "Iron melts at 1,539 degrees centigrade, and molybdenum melts at 2,622 degrees centigrade. So that will give you some idea. I see now just what John found, no wonder he was so excited. That planet must be full of it! Yes, a veritable gold mine!"

Maitland and Carol clutched their heads in agony. "Sensorites!" Maitland cried.

"They're here," Carol wailed, "on the ship!"

Ian and Barbara headed off to find the aliens. Lilith placed her fingers on Carol's temples, trying to block whatever the Sensorites were doing that was causing the two astronauts pain. "It's like they're blasting a signal to all susceptible humans on a wavelength that I can't block."

When Ian and Barbara came back, Maitland and Carol were less tense and able to take their hands off of their heads. The Doctor's frown seemed etched into his face. "This is all very well, but I think that one of us should try to contact them."

"Are you feeling better now?" Barbara asked Carol and Maitland.

"I don't know what happened, but I'm certainly feeling better now." Carol nodded.

"Much better," Maitland agreed.

Ian looked at the Doctor. "I'm sure it's no coincidence that the Sensorites attacked as soon as you discovered the molybdenum."

Susan's head jerked up. "Yes, but they _won't_ agree to that."

The Doctor frowned at her. "Agree? To what? What are you talking about, child?"

"I-I'm sure they'll talk to you about it…" she said.

"Susan?" Lilith gently touched the younger Time Lady's shoulder. "Who are you talking to?"

"Alright, I'll ask them." Susan turned to her grandfather. "The Sensorites want to know if it's alright for them to talk to you."

"Do you mean to say that you've made contact with them?"

"Yes, Grandfather."

"Well, of course we shall see them, but they must agree not to harm us. If they try, then I shall fight them."

"If I don't get to them first," Lilith added under her breath.

Susan nodded. "Right." After a moment, she walked across the room and unlocked and lifted the shutter. The Sensorites entered.

"Which one is the Doctor?" asked the first Sensorite.

"The one with the white hair," the second told the other.

"What is it you want of us?" the Doctor questioned. "Why won't you let these space people go back to their Earth, mm?"

"None of you can ever again leave the area of the Sense Sphere," the first said, firmly.

"Why not?"

"You know the answer to that!" the second hissed.

"Because of the molybdenum," Lilith guessed. "But we are not interested in it."

"So you say, but once before we trusted Earthmen, to our cost!"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "So Earthmen have visited the Sense Sphere?"

"Yes," the first confirmed. "And they cause us a fearful affliction. We shall not allow it to happen again."

"What do you expect us to do, drift around forever?" Maitland demanded.

"No, you will all come back with us. A special area had been prepared for you on the Sense Sphere. There you will live and there you will be looked after."

"These people cannot possibly accede to your request, it's out of the question!" the Doctor snapped.

"You will do exactly as we tell you because you have no choice. None of you!"

"My party does have a choice, and I assure we have no intention of spending the rest of our lives with you!"

Lilith stepped forward. "You have our answer. What do you propose to do about it?"

"We intend taking you down to the Sense Sphere," the second Sensorite replied, "but we do not wish to harm you in any way."

"Since we've met you, we've not wanted to hurt you either. But you must get off this ship."

"What is we refuse?" the first Sensorite asked.

"I will attack you."

"The other Earth people will not be able to help you."

"I don't need their help," Lilith said, dangerously.

Barbara intervened. "Surely we've proved as such."

"You have only proved that you can lock doors," the second Sensorite snipped. "We can unlock them!"

"Now listen to me, both of you," the Doctor said. "You've taken the lock of my ship and I want it returned immediately."

"You are in no position to threaten us."

"I don't make threats, but I do keep promises. And I promise you I shall cause more trouble than you bargained for if you don't _return my property_!" he shouted.

The Sensorites cowered with hands over their ears at the loudness of the Doctor's tone. "We must decide what we shall do." They returned to the port corridor.

"What did they mean, decide?" Barbara wondered.

Ian shrugged. "I dunno, sounds as though there's something else they can do to us."

"Could they have been referring to Susan? They've only spoken to her," Lilith pointed out.

The Doctor looked down at Susan. "Next time, if there is a next time, they might try and control you mind, child."

"Doctor, is there no way you can get into your ship?" Maitland questioned.

The Doctor shook his head. "No, not unless they return what they stole."

Carol deflated. "But they will never give it back to you."

He smiled. "Oh, my dear, they're not invincible. No, no. Did any of you notice the peculiarity in their eyes?"

Lilith nodded. "Their pupils were dilated."

"It's a fallacy, of course, that cats can see in the dark, they can't; but they can see better than humans because the iris of their eyes dilates at night."

"What are you driving at Doctor?" Ian asked.

"It's obvious," Lilith said. "The Sensorites' eyes were completely dilated in the light, so they would contract in the darkness. Cut the lights, and they might as well be blind."

The Doctor nodded. "Exactly. And that is our best weapon. The Sensorites will be frightened in the dark."

Susan shook her head. "But you can't be sure of that. You're only sure that they can't see in the dark."

"Doctor, assuming you're right—" Barbara began.

"Which he is, of course," Ian put in.

The Doctor nodded. "Naturally. (Lilith snorted) My dear Barbara, wouldn't you be afraid if you couldn't see your enemies?"

Susan tensed. "I don't want to go."

"Child, what…?"

"Are the Sensorites talking to you again?" Ian inquired. "What are they saying?"

She shushed him. "I can't hear them very well… Oh, that's better. There- there's just one voice a long way away.

"What's the message, child?" the Doctor asked.

"Oh… Oh all right. But none of the others must be harmed." Susan glanced at the others. "Don't move, any of you. Grandfather, it was the only way. They knew I'd agree." She walked to the open doorway.

"Agree? To what?"

"To go down with them to their planet. Otherwise we'll all be killed." Susan walked through the doorway and joined the Sensorites. The shuttered closed behind her.


	4. UPDATE AGAIN

**IMPORTANT**

Because of the current status of the Lilith!Verse stories, the series is currently on hiatus. I will not resume posting until everything is complete and in chronological order. HOWEVER I am posting bits and pieces as they're finished over on Archive of Our Own under the username Darkel_Tyler. Feel free to jump over there and read what I have yet to post on this site.

I apologize for the inconvenience. As soon as I get my personal s*** sorted, this series will be my main priority.

-Darkelvoriplorellion Tyler


End file.
